Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Molly tracks a troubled teen., November 5, 2005
Thirty-year-old Molly Blume is writer whose speciality is true crime stories and she has been happily married to the love of her life, Rabbi Zach Abrams, for eight months. When an eighteen-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl named Hadassah Bailor runs away with a man whom she met in an Internet chat room, Rabbi Chaim Bailor enlists Molly's help in finding his daughter. The rabbi would like Molly to track Hadassah down and convince her to come home. Not only is her father worried about what might befall Hadassah, but he is also concerned about his family's good name if Hadassah's actions become common knowledge. Although Molly would prefer that the Bailors go straight to the police, she reluctantly agrees to do what she can to bring Hadassah back.
"Now You See Me" is a sad story about the many pressures and temptations that lead young people astray, even in the so-called sheltered world of the Orthodox Jews. The book has an intricate plot with many twists, turns, and red herrings, and it highlights such timely issues as self-mutilation ("cutting"), teen suicide, and cheating by both high school faculty and students. Krich's characters are not caricatures, but flawed, three-dimensional people. Hadassah is a very troubled and gullible girl, Rabbi Bailor is a bit too concerned with his reputation, and even Molly reveals herself to be a person who holds grudges. "Now You See Me" is not a "feel good" novel in which everyone lives happily ever after. It is a slice of life about the many evils that threaten our children in America's open society.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A CONTROLLED, FINELY NUANCED READING, November 22, 2005
Voice performer Deanna Hurst delivers a controlled, finely nuanced reading of Rochelle Krich's fourth episode in the adventures and misadventures of writer Molly Blume. As many know, Blume's Orthodox Jewish faith is very much a part of her life - Krich describes this beautifully and Hurst reads these passages with dignity and respect. Further, it's a bit of a dual performance for Hurst as the story revolves around a missing girl, Hadassah, and Hurst imbues this character's lines with guilelessness and gullibility.
Finding the missing Hadassah is not a job Blume sought, but she feels she owes a friend a favor. Seems the girl may have run off with someone she met on an Internet chat room, but the plot becomes murky with murder when the man in question is found dead. Surely the ingenuous Hadassah couldn't have committed such a crime....or could she?
Takes an expert voice performer to inhabit the voices of two rather disparate characters convincingly, but Hurst carries it off.
Listen and enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of this year's best mystery novels, November 2, 2005
It isn't the fact that NOW YOU SEE ME... by Rochelle Krich is her best novel to date that makes it noteworthy, though certainly this would be enough for her fan base, which has been quietly and exponentially growing. What makes this latest installment in Krich's Molly Blume series worthy of comment is that its many strengths render it one of this year's best mystery novels.
It begins with a disappearance that is voluntary but then leads to a death --- which may be accidental, or a murder, or self-defense --- framed against a religious and cultural backdrop that causes an incidental impediment of the investigation. The result is an intriguing, engrossing, and even enchanting tale magnificently and beautifully told.
Blume is an orthodox Jew, a reporter and semi-successful author of true crime books who balances her writing career with her duties as a rabbi's wife. NOW YOU SEE ME... begins with Blume taking notice of an apparent fan who attends three of her book signings consecutively. At first she believes that he's a stalker, but then learns that he needs a favor. Reuben Jastrow informs Blume that his daughter, Hadassah, has run away from home with a man who she met on the Internet. Jastrow is concerned that this incident will ruin not only Hadassah's reputation, but also that of her older sister and their entire family.
Blume agrees. But there are difficulties. Hadassah is 18, and in the eyes of the law is of age to do as she wishes. An even bigger problem, however, is that Blume has not been told the entire truth about Hadassah. The truth indirectly involves an incident in Blume's past, one that makes her hesitant to involve herself in Hadassah's disappearance yet ultimately causes her to interject herself into the matter. There is a built-in time bomb, if you will, that makes the discovery of Hadassah's whereabouts within a few days imperative, one that creates a remarkable tension that by itself makes this book worth reading.
When Hadassah finally reappears, it seems that the matter is settled. Subsequently, however, an apparent suicide victim is tied to Hadassah's disappearance; and when it is discovered that the man is actually a murder victim, Hadassah, her father, her other relatives, and even Blume herself are prime suspects. The ultimate key to the entire mystery is shrouded in the past, in matters almost (but not quite) forgotten by those involved, demonstrating that the errors and omissions of the past generation are often visited upon the present.
There is a subtle but constant interplay between tradition and modernity in NOW YOU SEE ME... Krich does not make judgments here; keeping true to the traditions of Jewish orthodoxy is no doubt difficult, particularly given the temptations inherent in this world. Yet there is a comfort in ritual and belief, and the underlying reasons therefore, that shine through in the Blume novels in general and this one in particular.
Krich also deserves kudos for including an extensive glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish words; while readers can discern the meanings of many terms from context, the glossary at times is a comfort indeed. But it is the story, and the telling, that make NOW YOU SEE ME... a winner. Highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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